How to share a PDF on Facebook

Written by robert schrader| 13/05/2017

Among the options Facebook provides you for communicating with others in your network of friends is the ability to share links. When you post a link alongside a status update, Facebook attaches it to the update. If it's a certain type of file -- an Adobe PDF document, for example -- Facebook displays it as such alongside your status update. Upload your PDF to the Internet, then attach it to a status update to share it on Facebook.

Upload your PDF to the Internet if you haven't already done so. Use a free file hosting website -- such as "FreePDFHosting," "MediaFire" or "KeepAndShare" -- if you don't have personal hosting space for your file.

Click "Link" above the blank field into which you enter Facebook status updates. Paste the PDF address into the field and click "Attach." Input a status to accompany or explain the PDF, if you wish, then click "Post" to share the file with your network, who is now able to view or download it.

Tip

If you want to share a PDF that already exists online, verify with the person who runs the website to which it's uploaded that you can share it without uploading it on your own. If it's hosted on someone else's website, you link to it without permission -- or, "hotlink," as it's known on the Web -- and many people click it, the owner could face excessive usage charges from her Web host.

Tips and warnings

If you want to share a PDF that already exists online, verify with the person who runs the website to which it's uploaded that you can share it without uploading it on your own. If it's hosted on someone else's website, you link to it without permission -- or, "hotlink," as it's known on the Web -- and many people click it, the owner could face excessive usage charges from her Web host.